Hi Pearl. One could also say of equal force and truth, that obedience is the key to love. Obedience is the only true way of expressing love.
2Jo 1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.
Do you realise there is only one church among the many thousands that are in existence that claim the title Christian, just one church that Satan hates? We find this in Revelation. We read in
Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Now who specifically is this wrath directed against? We see who a few verses later,
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Now many people like to believe that the woman is Israel. Not so. This woman is the bride. This woman who loves Jesus is His church. The devil cannot attack Jesus directly, but he knows that if he attacks 'one of the least of these my brethren', as Paul found out on the road to Damascus, he is attacking and persecuting Jesus. And what is it that makes this church special? She keeps God's commandments, and has faith in Jesus. One cannot love God in disobedience. Jesus said "if ye love Me keep My commandments". True worship comprises true obedience. Keeping the commandments of men is vain worship. Adhering to tradition is vain worship. And no covenant relationship with God was established without obedience, both in the OT and NT.
Obedience to God's commandments and love for God are not two distinct separate concepts. They are one and the same. How do you suppose the devil managed to persuade 1/3 of the pure, holy, angels in heaven on to his side against God? Through obedience. Satan coveted worship; and the angels gave him that which he desired by surrendering to his opposition to the laws of God, setting up a rival government with its own laws, and he ha brought that same war against God's laws to earth, where he uses the church as his chief weapon, by having them preach that Christians can be saved while in disobedience to the commandments of God, even to the point of teaching that the law is now no longer binding.
The serpent promised Eve that if she disobeyed God, and ate of the tree of knowledge, she could become like God. Paul says in Romans that we are predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ, become like God in character, but the church is repeating Satan's lie that such can be done while disobeying God's commandments. And nearly all churches attack any Christian who upholds God's laws as sacrosanct, saying such is legalism, or attempting to earn his way to heaven through good works. Such are doing Satan's work for him.